The Austin weekly statesman. (Austin, Tex.) 1883-1898, 1887-02-10

troops for the protection of Texas, and in
that way for years had occupied it in that
manner Jointly with Texas. The Spanish
settlers there had long ago withdrawn,
and the Comanches, Kickapoos and
Apaches made it their homes, and still
maintained their occupancy and hostility
to the whites when the war of secession
came on. Where the exact line of de-
marcation in that quarter between Texas
and the United States was secured, conse-
quently, matter about which neither
government felt much concern at that
time.
Two days before the secession of Texas,
on the goth day of January, 1861, Kansas
was admitted into the union as a state
over the opposing votes of all the repre-
sentatives and senators of Texas.
Her southern boundary, as defined in
the act of admission, commenced north of
the Arkansas river and passed along the
37th parallel of latitude, but it did not,
however, call for crossing, or touching the
Arkansas river; and called for no artificial
or natural land mark, which would have
been an indication to Texas that, when
that line should be actually run, it would
cut into and across the territory south of
the Arkansas, now in question. That
country afterwards continued in the occu-
pancy of the Indians as before, and the
state of Kansas never attempted the
exercise of any jurisdiction in it till about
the year 1S73-too short time since for
her possession to effect the rights of
Texas under the laws regulating the comfy
of states, If indeed 1t were possible for
her to obtain anything like prescriptive
right, by ever so long possession, of the
permissive and subordinate character
obtained through the United States and
shown by the treaty of 1888 and the terms
of annexation.
In the meantime Melish's map
continued lost to Texas, till within
the last five or six years, when,
for the first time within
half century, it came to light through
the enterprising research of Col. John M.
Swisher, of Austin; who, conceivlng the
idea of locating veteran land certificates
in Greer county, if on investigation he
should conclude it was Texas territory,
went to Washington to prosecute the in
vestigatiOn, and there discovered, in the
state department where the original treaty
of 1919 was filed, the veritable map of the
treaty itself. He made the fact known
and was doubtless the first person during
the long period of its obscurity to discover
that the boundary line-the Tooth meri-
dian, as laid down on that map, lay far to
the east of Greer county, and consequently
that not only Greer county, but the vast
region east and north of it now claimed,
was Texas territory. When the Joint
nd tlxr, IN,
came together, the existence of that map
in the state department at Washington
had become generally known. A number
of efforts to obtain a true tracing of it
were then made, all of which, however,
were unsuccessful. Four tracings, certi-
fled by the secretary of state to be true
copies, were found on comparison each to
! be different from the others, and, of
necessity, but garbled. extract from the
original. Wide search was therefore made
by the Texas commissioners for another
original copy of the map, which might be
obtained and used by the commission,
but without success.
Abouth this time the Texas commission
were informed that photograph copy of
the original had been promised, by the au-
thorities at Washington, to the commits
sion on the part of the United States.
Learning this TACT, Messrs. Maddox
Bros. IL Anderson, of Austin, volunteer
ed their services to obtain such copy for
the Texas commission, and shortly there
after through the kind assistance of the
Hon. Joseph Sayers, did obtain and de-
liver to the Texas commission, this i'm.
portant document-a photograph of
Melish's map of the United States, i'm
proved to January l, 1918.
1t at once disclosed to the commission
unmistakable evidence that the real posi-
sition of the boundary line in question,
was as l have already described it. There
was no room for doubt. The bends of
Red River and the Arkansas, the Wichita
mountains, the mouth of Rattlesnake
creek, the dotted line of Pixies survey
and other great landmarks occupied such
relative positions ON the map to the
plainly marked and numbered Tooth
meridian as necessarily to fix its position
on the surface of the country and show it
to be many miles to the east of the line
now considered the true Tooth meridian.
The space between these two lines, from
Red River to the Arkansas, though evil
IDENTIFY Texas territory, was found to be
embraced within the Indian Territory and
the state of Kansas.
The facts thus disclosed were urged upon
the attention of the commissioners of the
United States, but were persistently
ignored by them. They were all military
officers, trained to strict obedience Of
orders. The presidents order appointing
them indicated that they were to co-ope-
rate with the Texas commission in ascer-
tanning and marking the point where the
Tooth meridian crosses Red river emitting
any reference to the terms of the treaty
or to Melish's map, in accordance with
which the act of congress required the
boundary should be marked.
AS the line laid down in MelIsh's map
for the Tooth meridian and adopted by the
treaty, as the boundary line was not, in
fact, the Tooth meridian, this order,in effect,
precluded these army officers from mark
ing it, and hence defeated the real object
of the commission. The Texas commits
sion were directed to run and mark the
boundary according to the treaty map,
and while they insisted on the terms of
the treaty the United States commission
obeyed their orders. Hence the failure of
l. IL